


Lunar escape

by melian225



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, F/M, Moon, One Big Happy Weasley Family, Weasley Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 13:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melian225/pseuds/melian225
Summary: The Weasleys all take a trip for Arthur's birthday.





	Lunar escape

Arthur Weasley was staring at the Daily Prophet. “Will you look at that?” he said in astonishment. “The things they can do nowadays. Look! Day trips to the moon!”

Molly looked over with interest. “What was that?”

“Day trips to the moon!” Arthur enthused. He scanned the article. “Apparently the Ministry has perfected long-distance Portkeys and they’re using them to send people to the moon. Can you believe it?”

Molly peered over his shoulder, pushing her glasses up her nose as she did so. “Well, dear, you do have a birthday coming up. Feel like a trip?”

He looked at her fondly. “Mollywobbles, you are the best wife a man could have. Can we bring the family?”

She hesitated, and he knew she was thinking of their dwindling stock of gold in Gringott’s. “We’ll manage,” he said quickly. “We always do.”

Her smile returned. “You’re right, dear. We always do.”

****

The day in question dawned bright and sunny, which Arthur thought was a good sign. He beamed at Molly. “When was the last time we had everyone together like this?”

Molly feigned deep thought as she dropped things into her handbag. “Percy’s birthday?” she asked presently. “Or was it George’s? I forget.”

With six surviving children and twelve grandchildren, theirs was certainly a large brood. And this wasn’t a cheap enterprise, but to Arthur’s surprise his children had all put in to pay for everyone, rather than the cost being borne by their parents. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised – Harry, at least, had more than enough gold and was more than happy to spend it on his in-laws – but he was unused to such generosity.

“I don’t know why,” Molly scolded him. “We’ve raised kind children, and they turned into kind adults. Of course they want to help us.”

He could barely contain his excitement though. He felt like a little kid at Christmas time. The moon! It was almost unbelievable. The Ministry had set up an inhabitable zone where oxygen was pumped in and bubble-head charms and moon clothes were unnecessary. Covering several acres, there was more than enough space for them to have a good look around, and be back in time for dinner. Arthur couldn’t think of a more exciting way to spend the day.

“All set, Dad?” Charlie asked as he walked into the kitchen. “Happy birthday, by the way.” He leaned over and gave his father a quick kiss on the cheek, and Arthur realised suddenly that he was no longer taller than his second son. Age was catching up with him. Thank goodness they were doing this trip now.

“All set,” he said with a smile. “Your mother’s been packing all morning. I don’t see how we’re going to need most of it, but she says you never know.”

Charlie laughed. “Sounds like Mum,” he said. “By the way, Bill and his tribe have just arrived.”

Arthur beamed. With Bill and Fleur’s arrival, they were all there. He went out to the courtyard to greet them and was taken aback once more with the view before him. Six adult children, five with husbands or wives, twelve children between the lot of them. Victoire, the eldest grandchild, was almost twelve; Lily, the youngest, was just four. His heart swelled with pride at the sight of them all.

“We’re due at the Ministry at nine,” was what he said. “Are we all ready? I think Molly has enough Floo powder.”

“Dad, we’ve been ready for an hour,” George said. “Fred here has been talking about nothing else for days.”

Molly beamed. “He might just be almost as excited as Arthur,” she said with a smile. “Okay, it’s time to go. Arthur, you first as it’s your birthday.” She held out a handful of Floo powder for him. “Off you go, dear.”

In no time they were all gathered in the Atrium at the Ministry, the remnants of the Fountain of Magical Brethren just before them. Arthur wondered if they were ever going to fix it, but Harry had said that the Ministry wasn’t keen to entrench a hierarchy like that again, given what the Centaurs and house elves had done in the war. Besides, it was a reminder of what they had fought for. Arthur understood this. He just thought it looked messy.

A bespectacled man met them by the registration desk. “Mr and Mrs Weasley?” he asked, taking in the twenty people in front of him with great aplomb. “I assume you are all part of the same group?”

Arthur smiled. The trademark Weasley red hair had permeated much of the family. Just George’s two, two of Harry’s and one of Bill’s had locks of a different colour, and they stood out among the sea of orange. “Yes, all the same party.”

“Excellent. And you are all here? As you know, Portkeys can’t wait for stragglers.”

Beside him, Molly suppressed a giggle. They both knew very well that Portkeys could wait up to an hour for latecomers, or stragglers as the man had put it, as their daughter-in-law Hermione had been the one to write the legislation. Magical theory had come a long way since he was a lad, he thought. Back then, Portkeys couldn’t go more than a hundred miles. Now – outer space. It was unbelievable.

The bespectacled man gestured for them all to follow him into an antechamber off the main Atrium. It was covered with moving photographs from previous moon visits – the Minister, the Daily Prophet, some of the older and richer families like the Malfoys and the Fawleys, who had already been – and had a number of chairs set up in the middle.

“Please take a seat,” he said as they filed past him. “I just have a few housekeeping things to go over with you before you depart.”

With the exception of a few of the kids mucking around and their parents trying to shush them, the group focused its attention on their instructor.

“The colony on the moon is contained inside a dome,” he began. “This is so you don’t need to worry about things like atmospheric pressure and oxygen. Bubble-head charms are not necessary on this voyage, unlike the first few times we had people going.”

Arthur heard his daughter Ginny, behind him, breathe a sigh of relief, and he could understand why. Active kids had a habit of breaking Bubble-head charms by accident, which was not what you wanted on a visit outside the earth’s atmosphere.

“So that means it’s all like earth?” Angelina asked.

The man nodded. “To a point,” he said. “You can breathe and we have regulated the atmosphere so the air pressure is about what you are experiencing now. However, we have not adjusted the gravitational pull.”

“The what?” That was Ron, and his question was followed by a hissed remark from Hermione. Arthur supressed a smile.

“Gravitational pull,” the man repeated. “What holds you on the surface of the planet and stops you from floating away.”

“Oh.” Ron again. “I thought my wife did that.”

There were giggles behind him, but the bespectacled man plainly didn’t approve of such tomfoolery. “As I was saying, we have not adjusted the gravitational pull. This means that you are much lighter on the moon, and can leap greater distances.”

“That’s good, because I can’t leap at all,” Molly muttered. Arthur stifled another smile. That was why he loved her so much, because she was able to laugh at herself. It was a quality much rarer than it should be.

Young Rose’s eyes lit up. “Hopscotch!” she shouted happily, and Arthur laughed out loud. Their enthusiasm was so infectious – and he could just imagine her playing hopscotch on the moon. It would be a sight to behold.

Mr Spectacles did seem to have a heart, because he gave Rose half a smile. “Yes, you can play hopscotch there,” he said. “And jump rope. And you won’t believe how far a flying disc will travel!”

“Heavens,” Molly whispered dryly. “He has seen a child before, after all.”

He seemed to have heard her. “Your grandchildren will by no means be the first children on the moon, Mrs Weasley. There will be plenty for them to do.”

She nodded, and Arthur gave her hand a squeeze.

“The rules, however, are strict. You must not cast any spells directly at the dome. While it has been reinforced as well as the Ministry can manage it, random spells may damage it. Therefore all spellwork must be done at least two hundred yards from the perimeter.”

Arthur found himself nodding. That seemed fair enough.

“There is to be no littering in the colony. All rubbish must either be Vanished, or returned to Earth upon your person.”

Again, that seemed sensible.

“And you must return to the Portkey Centre by five o’clock for your return journey. There are NO exceptions to this rule. As such, we recommend you aim to return by half past four to account for any delays.”

Arthur nodded again. While Portkeys could be delayed, the process was more difficult the longer the journey. And this was the longest journey ever.

“And now – are you ready?” Mr Spectacles smiled suddenly, transforming his entire face. “You’ll have a wonderful time, I’m sure.”

They all stood up, and the man held up what looked like a Muggle hula hoop. It was large enough for everyone to grab hold, even Lily, though Arthur noticed that the younger children were still being kept hold of tightly by their parents, just in case they let go at an inopportune moment.

“Everyone holding on?” Mr Spectacles asked. When they nodded, he looked at his watch. “Five … four … three … two … one …”

“Blastoff!!” five year old Albus shouted. Arthur laughed aloud as he felt the familiar pull around his middle and they began hurtling through the ether.

****

What struck him first when they landed was the eerie quiet of the place. At home, there was always some kind of noise in the background. Here, there was nothing. There was an absolute stillness that felt totally alien to Arthur, coming as he did from households bursting with children.

Of course, the silence was shattered almost immediately by the children who, while not as boisterous (yet) as he might have expected, were still chattering continually. “Wow,” he heard one of them say. “Are we there?” asked another, one of the younger ones, though he wasn’t sure which as the question was in a whisper. “Look, is that Earth?” said a third.

Arthur looked around to get his bearings. Theirs was not the only party on the moon that day, but it was certainly the largest. They were on the side of the moon that faced the earth, ensuring they had natural light for much of their stay, though he noticed a few fires burning around the place to provide both light and heat to the visitors.  The colony, as it was called, was huge – they were in the centre and he couldn’t see the edges from where they were … and even if he had better eyesight, he was willing to bet he still wouldn’t be able to see them. Plenty of room for them to explore, he thought. Plenty of space for the kids to run around in. Plenty of memories to be made.

Molly seemed almost overwhelmed. “Are we really there?” she asked him quietly.

He gestured to the blue planet in the sky, clouds swirling around its atmosphere. “I think we must be.”

“But really, Arthur? The moon?”

He turned an excited face to her. “I know! Isn’t it incredible!”

He knew what she meant, though. It almost seemed to be beyond belief. But the evidence was before them, including all twelve grandchildren realising what the lack of gravity meant in a practical sense and doing somersaults in the air and bounding about all over the place. Clearly any discomfort they might have felt from the Portkey had worn off quickly.

As Mr Spectacles had promised, there was indeed hopscotch painted on the ground not far off, and a selection of things like skipping ropes, balls, flying discs and brooms. Molly junior and her sister Lucy had already seen them and were rummaging through the piles, exclaiming at what they found and having a wonderful time seeing how far they could throw things. James had grabbed one of the brooms first thing – both his parents were excellent fliers so it was hardly surprising he’d excelled at that particular skill – and was scooting off somewhere in the distance, Rose was playing hopscotch with Roxanne, and Lily was just jumping on the spot, seeing how high she could get and exclaiming about it every time she landed. “Did you see that, Mummy? What about that one? What about that one? Was it the highest I’ve jumped?”

“Let’s just have a look around,” Molly said in his ear, and without waiting for an answer she grabbed his hand and started leading him towards a building in the distance. He was happy to go with her, and they spent a leisurely hour or two perusing the information provided about the history of the moon settlement and how it had come about. It was called a colony but no one actually lived there except the caretakers, who kept an eye on things when all the visitors had departed. Caterers, chefs, security and law enforcement were shipped in every day, the same way they themselves had arrived. Arthur shuddered to think of how it would feel to have to Portkey to work every day. It wasn’t his favourite way to travel, put it that way.

Getting the family together for lunch was more of a trial than they had anticipated. Their children ere of course happy to go along to a sit down luncheon, but the grandchildren had other ideas. “But I was playing with Al and Fred over there,” James whined when he was summoned back. “Can’t we take our food over there and keep playing?”

“No,” Harry said sternly, “because it’s Grandpa’s birthday and he wants us all to have lunch together. It’s one meal, James. I think you’ll survive.”

“I won’t,” James sulked in typical schoolboy fashion. “This will be the longest lunch ever.”

Arthur laughed. “Well in that case it’s just as well I’ve got a time-slower-down-er,” he said, pulling a watch from his pocket. It was old and battered but would do for this trick. “See?” he asked showing it to James. “If I tap it with my wand” – and he got his wand out and tapped the watch, putting a light Impediment Jinx on it as he did so – “time will slow down. So what feels like an hour will only really be half an hour, and you’ll have more time to go back and play afterwards.”

James’ eyes got wide, and over the top of his head Arthur noticed Ginny giving him a sly smile. She would remember this trick from her own childhood, of course. “Really, Grandpa?”

“Really,” Arthur said. “Lunch will only take half as much time as you think it does. Then you can go back.”

James smiled and relented. “That’s so cool, Grandpa!” And he happily took his seat at the table alongside his brother and sister.

Molly smiled at him. “Nice work,” she said quietly. “Good to see that old trick still does the job.”

Lunch was a buoyant affair, as it always was when the twenty of them were all together. It was a job keeping the food on the table, as it had to be weighted down to stop it from floating away, but the kids soon solved that particular problem by eating it all. The novelty of their surroundings had put everyone in a good mood, it seemed. To Arthur, it felt like the most perfect birthday ever.

Once the meal was over the children started a game of hide and seek while their parents sat down and watched lazily. While the colony was large, it was still a contained area so there wasn’t really anywhere the kids could get to that caused anyone any difficulty. But they had a wonderful time jumping among the craters and bouncing off just about everything they touched, both figuratively and literally.

“I could get used to this,” Ginny said lazily as she poured herself another glass of wine. “Can we come back?”

Harry, next to her, chuckled. “It’s a lot of money to pay for a lazy afternoon, Gin. Maybe we can just get a babysitter?”

She laughed, a loud, throaty laugh that meant she was really relaxed. “Yes, fair point. Babysitter.” She grinned. “And wine. Definitely wine.”

The game of hide and seek lasted most of the afternoon. Just after four o’clock Percy decided it was time to round the kids up to get them ready to go back to Earth again. It was just in time, too, as the moon was turning away from the sun and things were getting very dark and cold.

“Molly … Lucy … Fred … James … Albus …Roxanne … Hugo …Louis …Rose … Dominique … Victoire …” Percy was counting off names on his fingers, then paused. “There’s one missing.” He scanned the children hurriedly. “Lily! Where’s Lily?”

The languid atmosphere turned tense very quickly. Lily was the youngest, only four years old, and also the smallest by far.

“Lily?” Ginny turned into Mama Bear in an instant. “Lily, where are you?” She was able to project her voice quite a long way, but there was no answer.

Within moments everyone had joined in the search. Parents kept their children close, not wanting another to go astray in the confusion. Even other people were joining in, people they’d never met before, but people who recognised Lily’s parents and wanted to help them. Their calls rent the air. “Lily! Lily, where are you! Lily, can you hear me?”

An elderly man appeared at Arthur’s elbow. “There’s not many places she can go,” he said, “but I know them all. I’ll help.” He was wearing coveralls with lots of pockets and had a rag around his neck, and Arthur guessed he was the caretaker. If anyone could find the child, he hoped, that man could.

Molly was keeping an anxious eye on the clock. “Four thirty,” she muttered to herself as the search went ever outwards. “The Portkey can’t wait, we have to be back by five.”

Arthur was keenly aware of the time as well. Every minute that went past when Lily had not been found was another minute closer to their forced departure time. What would they do if they hadn’t located her by five o’clock? They couldn’t stay – but he was equally sure not one of them would be willing to leave. Not with Lily lost somewhere on the lunar surface.

“Four forty five,” Molly muttered, staring anxiously around as though she hoped Lily would just suddenly appear from nowhere. “Where IS she?”

The shouts grew louder now. “LILY!! LILY, WE HAVE TO GO! WHERE ARE YOU??”

Still no sign of the child.

“Four fifty,” Molly said, even more anxious this time. “Four fifty-one.”

Ginny was understandably frantic by now, and even Harry looked vexed. He was normally so staid, so solid, that it was a little unnerving seeing him react like this.

“Four fifty-two.”

Charlie was bounding around like a madman, looking in every crater he could see, behind every ridge. Percy was going back through the restaurant, Fleur was on her hands and knees looking underneath seats and tables, Hermione had climbed the Portkey Centre and was scanning the surroundings from that higher vantage point, George was heading to the farthest part of the colony.

“Four fifty-three.”

Ginny was now wailing, tears streaming down her face.

“Four fifty-four.”

There was a call on the loudspeaker going throughout the colony, asking for Lily Potter to make herself known.

“Four fifty-five.”

A siren started sounding, telling everyone to get to the Portkey Centre. Not one of the Weasley clan paid the slightest attention to it.

“Four fifty-six.”

Harry, dragging James and Albus with him and refusing to let them out of his sight, made a sudden movement that Arthur saw out of the corner of his eye. He clutched at Molly eagerly and turned her attention towards them.

“Four fifty-seven.”

A victorious yell ripped through the air. Harry pulled Lily out from behind a crater and ran towards the Portkey Centre. As if on cue, the rest of them started running as well. Even Arthur and Molly, whose best running days were certainly behind them.

Fortunately the lower gravity on the moon aided their sprint, and in three or four bounds they were all back where they needed to be. Harry was shaking Lily, asking what on earth she had thought she was doing.

She just looked at him questioningly. “Did I win?”

That silenced him. “Win what??” he asked after a moment.

“Hide and seek, of course,” she said with a smile. “Did I win?”

“Hide and seek!!” Harry was clearly trying to contain his temper.

Ginny took over. “Hide and seek finished an hour ago, love,” she said. “We’ve all been looking for you.”

"But you found me,” Lily said with a pout. “So I didn’t win.”

“You were the last one to be found, dear,” Molly said, grabbing hold of the hula hoop again and putting Lily’s hand on it too. “So yes, you did win.”

And her sigh of relief was echoed by everyone as they hurtled back to Earth.


End file.
